Hired by N.Y. Daily News despite Legal Situation

Hired by N.Y. Daily News despite Legal Situation

Article excerpt

THE NEW YORK Daily News has hired Bill Schorr as staff editorial cartoonist despite his being on probation for an assault incident that occurred during a contentious marital breakup.

"Bill's a great cartoonist" said Daily News editorial page editor Michael Goodwin. "We did a national search and his work stood out"

When asked about the assault charge, Goodwin stated,"We are aware of it. Bill voluntarily and fully disclosed the situation [before he was hired]:

He added that the Daily News looked into the matter and felt questions about Schorr were "resolved to our satisfaction"

The assault incident and Schorr's new job were a prime topic of between-sessions conversations at last month's Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) convention in Orlando, Fla. Also, two editorial cartoonists called E&P this month to suggest investigating what had happened with Schorr.

The incident occurred on Sept. 1, 1996, when Schorr was an editorial cartoonist at the Kansas City Star and separated from his wife, Arlene.

Bill went to where she was living in Kansas City and, according to police reports, grabbed a handgun stored in a closet and began waving it. Arlene called the police, and Bill reportedly pointed the weapon at officers. The gun turned out to be unloaded.

Schorr was arrested, and later pied guilty to a"misdemeanor assault of an officer" charge, according to the Jackson County prosecutor's office in Kansas City. A spokesperson there told E&P that Schorr was given two years' probation on Jan. 2, 1997.

Four months before, on Sept. 3, 1996, Arlene filed for an order of protection against Bill, according to documents obtained from the Circuit Court of Jackson County. The order was approved for 180 days.

In March of this year, Arlene successfully filed for a 180-day extension, meaning the order will now run at least until Sept. 4, 1997, said Circuit Court public information officer Valerie Hartman.

A divorce between the Schorrs is pending.

The Kansas City Star ran articles about the handgun incident on Sept. 2 and Sept. 4, 1996, but the newspaper's library had no record of any Star article about the cartoonist's February 1997 departure from the paper. …